Morphological Changes in the Thymus of Rats Exposed to the Endocrine Disruptor Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane in the Prenatal and Postnatal Periods

Abstract

The study of the morphogenesis and histophysiology of the organs that carry out the immune defense of the body has gained particular importance in recent decades due to the increase in the number of allergic, autoimmune and lymphoproliferative diseases. An analysis of the literature shows that the increase in the number of allergic and autoimmune diseases that began after the end of World War II occurred in parallel with an increase in the production and consumption of various classes of chemical compounds. Many of them have the properties of endocrine disruptors - substances that, acting in negligible doses, disrupt any stages of the synthesis and secretion of hormones and their interaction with target cells. Endocrine disruptors have various effects on the immune system. In the scientific literature, there is information about the immunosuppressive effect of disruptors, as well as about the enhancement of inflammatory processes and autoimmune reactions by some of them.